h 73 

.5 

,B741 



RECEPTION AND ENTERTAINMENT 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 



CITY or BOSTON. 




1808 



n (J S T O N : 
ALFUKO MUDOR & SON, CITY PRINTKIIS, 34 SCHOOL STREET, 

1868. 




Book^" 



MU- 



EECEPTION AND ENTERTAINMENT 



CHINESE EMBASSY, 



CITY OF BOSTON. CiA: 





18G8. 



BOSTON: 

ALFRED MUDGE & SON, CITY TUINTERS, 34 SCIIOOT. STREET. 

1808, 



Fl3 

• 5 ' 



o 

i 



THE RECEPTION. 



The visit of an Embassy from the Chinese Empire to the 
United States Government, for the purpose of promoting the 
interests of the two countries by facilitating the intercourse be- 
tween them — an event of the highest significance in itself — 
was regarded by the citizens of Boston with peculiar satisfaction, 
from the fact that the chief personage in the Embassy Irom this 
ancient empire had long been a resident in their immediate vi- 
cinity, and had, during several terms, represented a portion of 
the city in the National Congress. It was in harmony, therefore, 
with the unanimous wishes of the citizens, that the City Council, 
on the twenty-ninth of May, 1868, — soon after the arrival of the 
Embassy from the Pacific Coast, — passed an order for the ap- 
pointment of a joint committee to tender the hospitalities of this 
city to the distinguished visitors. 

The Committee, consisting of Aldermen Samuel C. Cobb and 
Benjamin James; Councilmen Charles H. Allen, (the President,) 
Henry W. Pickering, George P. Denny and S. T. Snow, pro- 
ceeded to New York on the thirtieth day of May, and invited 
the Honorable Anson Burlingamc, Envoy Extraordinary and 
Minister Plenipotentiary, and his associates. Chili Ta-jin and 
Sun Ta-jin to visit Boston, at an early day, with the members of 
their suite, and partake of its hospitalities. In accepting the 
invitation, Mr. Burlingame expressed his gratification at this 
mark of confidence and esteem from his former fellow-citizens, 
who, he said, were the first to extend an odicial Avelcomc to 
his mission. 



4: RECEPTION OF THE 

The delay growing out of the ratification of the supplementary 
treaty between China and the United States, which the Embassy 
were empowered to negotiate, prevented Mr. Burlingame and his 
associates from visiting Boston until the twentieth of August. 
On the nineteenth the Embassy arrived at Worcester, where they 
remained, under the care of the Committee of the City Council 
of Boston, until the following morning. At nine o'clock a special 
train was provided by the Superintendent of the Boston and 
Albany Railroad, which conveyed the city's guests and the 
Committee to the Western Avenue Crossing, where they arrived 
at half past ten o'clock, A. M., and where preparations had been 
made to receive them. 

Mr. Cobb, the Chairman of the Committee, then presented 
Mr. Burlingame and his associates to the Honorable Nathaniel 
B. Shurtleff, Mayor of Boston. The Mayor welcomed the Em- 
bassy in the following words : 

Mr. Ambassador., — The City Council of Boston has 
already, through a committee, formally tendered to you 
the civilities that are your due, both as the accredited 
representative of the illustrious sovereign of the Chi- 
nese empire, and also, as one, who, in times past, emi- 
nently enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the citizens 
of this community. My duties on this occasion are, 
therefore, so far simplified as to afford me only the 
pleasure of expressing, in a few words, the welcome of 
this municipality to you, and to your distinguished 
associates, upon your entering the capital of the com- 
monwealth, which in former days you yourself have 
personally represented in the high councils of the 
nation. 

To us it is a cause of much regret that your coming 
hither has been deferred until the time of our general 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 5 

vacation, when the authorities and many of the citi/ens 
with their families are ahsent from their homes, and our 
halls of counsel and legislation, our schools and institu- 
tions of science, learning and the arts, are temporarily 
closed, and our family hearthstones almost deserted : 
For it is the earnest desire of our citizens to give you a 
reception fully commensurate with their respect for the 
ancient empire of China, and with their own ability to 
bestow. Nevertheless, you and the personages com- 
prising your suite are heartily welcome to the freedom 
and hospitalities of this our city ; and I trust that your 
sojourn with us, though of short duration, may be 
agreeable to you, and that the strangers who, for the 
first time, visit our peaceful abodes may find somewhat 
in our peculiar institutions, of sufficient excellence and 
interest to be deemed worthy of notice now, and of 
remembrance hereafter on their return to their far dis- 
tant home. 

In the name of my fellow-citizens, I extend to you all 
a sincere and most cordial welcome to Boston. 

In reply Mr. Burlingamc said : 

Mr. Mayor, — On behalf of myself and my associates 
I thank you for this tender of the hospitalities of the 
renowned city of Boston. Hitherto we have avoided 
all public demonstrations, not because we desired to 
repulse that good will which has followed us from our 
first arrival in this country down to the present hour, 
but because we felt it to be our duty to postpone our 
personal gratifications to the demands of our diplomatic 



6 RECEPTION OF THE 

affairs. We have made this single exception for the 
reason that Boston was the first to establish relations 
with China, — because it was my old home, — because, 
sir, it has presented its public schools, and its institu- 
tions of learning as its highest points of interest. Edu- 
cation is the foundation of all preferment in China, and 
is the basis of those institutions which have outlasted 
all others. It was natural, therefore, that my associates 
should have desired to make themselves acquainted 
with the systems of learning in the West. They will 
feel profound grief that it will be impossible for them 
to see your public schools in all their perfection. But I 
have no doubt that they will see much to admire when 
here, and much to remember when far away. Thank- 
ing you for this welcome, deeply grateful to you for 
your personal allusions, we now present ourselves to 
your hospitality with confidence and pleasure. 

The company then entered the carriages assigned to them, 
and a procession was formed by Colonel John Kurtz, Chief 
Marshal, in the following order : — 

The Chief Marshal. 

Aids — Police Captains R. H. Wilkins and S. G. Adams. 

Mounted Police Officers, under the command of Capt. Paul J. 

Vinal. 

Cavalry Band. 

Major Lucius Slade and Staff. 

Company B, First Battalion Light Dragoons, Capt. Albert 

Freeman. 

Com|)any A, First Battalion Light Dragoons, Capt. Barney Hull. 

His Honor the Mayor and the Honorable Anson Burlingame, in 

a barouche drawn by four horses. 



CHINESE EMBASSY. < 

The Chairman of the Committee, Chih Ta-jin and Mr. Brown 

(First Secretary), in a baronche drawn by four horses. 
Alderman Benjamin James, Sun Ta-jin and M. Dechamps (Second 

Secretary), in a barouche. 
The President of the Common Council, Councilman Pickering, 

Fung liao-Ych and Tah Lao-Yeh, interpreters, in a barouche. 
Councilmen Denny and Snow, Teh Lao-Ych and Kway Lao- 

Yeh, interpreters, in a barouche. 

Followed by carriages containing Ting Lao-Yeh, Lien Lao-Ych ; 

also Kang Lao-Yeh, Chooang Lao-Yeh, the Scribes, and 

Tso, the Physician to the Embassy. 

Carriages containing reporters for the daily papers and 

the servants of the Embassy. 

Company C, First Battalion Light Dragoons, Captain Freeman 

C. Oilman. 
Company D, First Battalion of Light Dragoons, Captain George 

Curtis. 

The route of the procession was as follows : Through Western 
Avenue, Heath, Centre, Marcella and Highland streets, Eliot 
Square, Dudley, Warren and Washington streets, Chester Square, 
Treraont and Worcester streets, Harrison Avenue, Newton and 
Washington streets, Union Square, Tremont, Boylston and Ar- 
lington streets. Commonwealth Avenue, Berkeley, Beacon, Park, 
Tremont, Winter, Summer, Devonshire and Franklin streets, 
counter-marching around the flag-staff", through Devonshire, ^Milk, 
India, State, Washington and School streets, to the Parker 
House, where the guests were given up. 

The customary salutes in honor of a Foreign Minister were 
fired from Washington Square, at the Highlands, and from 
Boston Common, by a detachment of the Second Light Bat- 
tery, M. V. M. 

In the evening, Mr. Burlingamc and his associates gave a rc- 
cei)tion to the members of the City Government in the large 
diniuK-hall on the second floor of the Parker House. 



8 RECEPTION OF THE CHINESE EMBASSY. 

On Friday, at 12 o'clock; a public reception was given by the 
Embassy in Faneuil Hall, which was handsomely decorated. 
The galleries were occupied by ladies ; and the body of the hall 
was filled by gentlemen, who received Mr. Burlingame and his 
associates, on their entrance, with great enthusiasm. The recep- 
tion continued until one o'clock, when the guests, who were 
much fatigued, withdrew from the hall and returned to the 
Parker House. 



THE BANQUET. 



THE BANQUET. 



On Friday, tlie twenty-first of August, the City Council enter- 
tained the Embassy with a banquet at the St. James Hotel. 
About two hundred and twenty-five gentlemen, including the 
members of the City Government, were present. 

The company entered the dining hall at seven o'clock. 

The Honorable Nathaniel B. ShurtleflF, Mayor, presided. On 
his right were seated the Honorable Anson Burlingame, Chief of 
the Embassy; His Excellency Alexander H. Bullock, Governor 
of the Commonwealth; Teh Lao-ych, English Interpreter at- 
tached to the Embassy ; the Honorable Charles Sumner, Chair- 
man of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States 
Senate; the Honorable Caleb Gushing; Major General Irwin 
McDowell, United States Army; Commodore John Rodgers, 
United States Navy ; Charles G. Nazro, Esquire, President of 
the Board of Trade. On the left of the Mayor were seated 
Chih-Ta-jin, associate minister; Mr. McLeavy Brown, Secretary 
to the Embassy ; Sun Ta-jin, associate minister ; M. Emile De- 
champs, Secretary to the Embassy; Fung Lao-yeh, English 
Interpreter; Ralph Waldo Emerson, LL.D.; Reverend George 
Putnam, D. D. ; Mr. Edwin P. Whipple. 

Among the other distinguished guests present were Dr. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes ; the Honorable Nathaniel P. Banks, the Hon- 
orable George S. Boutwell, and the Honorable Gincry Twichcll, 
members of Congress ; the Reverend Thomas Hill, D. D., Presi- 
dent of Harvard College; the Honorable George S. Ilillard, 
United States District Attorney ; the Honorable George 0. Bras- 



12 RECEPTION OF THE 

tow, President of the Senate; the Honorable Harvey Jewell, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives ; Brevet Major General 
H. W. Benham, and Brevet Major General J. G. Foster, U. S. 
Engineer Corps ; Major General James H. Carleton, U. S. A. ; 
Brevet Brigadier Geneial Henry H. Prince, Paymaster U. S. A. ; 
Major General James A. Cunningham, Adjutant General ; the 
Honorable Henry J. Gardner, Ex-Governor of the Common- 
wealth ; the Honorable Josiali Quincy ; the Honorable Frederic 
W. Lincoln, Jr. ; Dr. Peter Parker, formerly Commissioner to 
China ; the Honorable Isaac Livermore ; Sr, Frederico Granados, 
Spanish Consul ] Mr. G. M. Finotti, Italian Consul ; Mr. Joseph 
lasigi, Turkish Consul; the Honorable Marshall P. Wilder, 
President of the Board of Agriculture; N. G. Clark, D. D., 
Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions ; and many of the 
leading merchants and professional men of Boston. 

When the guests had taken the places assigned to them, the 
Mayor said : 

Gentlemen of the City Council, — At your bidding I 
most heartily welcome to the pleasures of the present 
occasion all who are here to participate in the hospital- 
ities of the city, in honor of the distinguished visitors 
from the oldest and most populous empire of the world. 
In accordance with our custom, we will now give atten- 
tion while an invocation for the Divine blessing is pro- 
nounced by the Reverend Dr. Putnam. 

A blessing was then asked by the Rev. Dr. Putnam. 
When the company had dined, the Mayor requested their 
attention, and made the following remarks : 

THE mayor's remarks. 

Gentlemen : — We are met this evening to testify 
our respect to the illustrious embassy which is now 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 13 

honoring our city with its presence. One of our per- 
sonal friends, who has been absent for a time for the 
accomplishment of much good for all nations and all 
people, has returned to the scenes of bygone days to meet 
his old associates, and to take hand by hand the friends 
of his early manhood. He has returned more weightily 
laden with official honors than his own country, and 
those with which it has heretofore held close alliance, 
could bestow upon him ; and with him he has many 
personages of a remote land, equally distinguished for 
their important official rank, and for the intellectual, 
moral, and social positions which they hold among their 
countrymen. We all welcome him and them most cor- 
dially to our municipality, deeming this honorable and 
much desired visitation to our country as a harbinger of 
the glorious future, when the greatest, the most popu- 
lous, and the most ancient of all the nations of the 
world shall open most widely and most freely her 
hitherto closed portals to all people of all lands and of 
all complexions and tongues. 

Especially pleased are we, Mr. Ambassador, that 
you, the chief personage of this illustrious embassy, are 
flesh of our flesh, and blood of our blood — that your lan- 
guage is our language, your sentiments and feelings the 
same as ours — that our home has once been your home 
— and that you have equally the personal respect and high 
regards of those who are now your fellow-countrymen, as 
of us who have also enjoyed that privilege. Your pres- 
ence, sir, with us this evening, in your present capacity, 
and with these surroundings, gives us, I assure you, 
great pleasure and satisfaction, and will be remembered 



14 RECEPTION OF THE 

most agreeably when you shall have successfully com- 
pleted your important missions, and when friendly 
breezes shall have wafted your trusty vessels with their 
precious burden, over the wide expanded ocean, and 
returned you in safety and in health to your far distant 
homes, to the affections of your friends, the plaudits of 
your countrymen, and the approbation of your govern- 
ment. It is not an empty compliment that you have paid 
to our country, in that the first negotiation on your very 
remarkable errand should have been made with the United 
States : Nor are we of Boston in the least degree insensi- 
ble to the distinction which you have accorded to our 
city, in having made to us the first, and perhaps the only, 
formal visit of your embassy to any of the large munici- 
palities of the land. The strong tie that once so firmly 
bound you in friendship to our community has not been 
broken; and we are joyfully permitted to hail your indi- 
vidual presence once more among us, as one of the 
felicities of the advent of the friendly mission to our 
shores. Time may wear on, events of the greatest 
portent may transpire ; but ancient friendships should 
never cease, nor the pleasant memories of the past be 
forgotten. We greet you, sir, most warmly as an old 
friend, and we recognize these your associates as new 
friends May these relations never have an end ! But 
may the bonds which you and our beloved country have 
now made, prove of adamantine hardness, and of eternal 
duration ! May the results of your labors be of mutual 
benefit to all countries ! In the days that are to come, 
when the doings of the present time shall be regarded 
as of the ancient of days, may the grand treaties of this 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 



15 



your embassy be remembered as the Maximie Chart?e of 
international union for the promotion and security of 
poHtical and rehgious liberty, of learning and intelligence, 
of law and harmony, and of perpetual mutual respect 
and amity. 

It may not be out of place for me to mention in this 
presence, that representatives of the oldest constituted 
government on the globe, dating back through more dy- 
nasties of potentates than any other nations can of rulers, 
have broken through the reserve of power, wealth, dignity 
and pride of ancient rank to tender to the whole civilized 
world an interchange of all that can be of any benefit 
or profit to individuals or collections of people ; while 
we, so young in national age, and differing so much 
from them in all our customs, manners, laws and 
government, are the first to open our arms to wel- 
come the offer, and to ratify treaties of the most 
incalculable good for their country and for ours. The 
Chinese Empire may date back to the fabulous era 
of Puankoo, and its history may be traced through the 
mythological times of Fohy, Shin-noong and their suc- 
cessors, and down in historical annals more centuries 
before the Christian era than have transpired since 
the advent of the Messiah ; and yet no period of the 
existence of that great empire, not even the days of the 
great Confucius, can compare in importance with the 
present era of her history, which will ever be noted as 
the greatest for giving and receiving that the world has 
ever known, either from recorded pages or even from 
the traditions of the past. The embassy has done wise- 
ly : For although the institutions of the Chinese, as well 



16 RECEPTION OF THE 

as their habits and customs, may differ from ours, a great 
similarity nevertheless exists in the peculiar situation of 
our several territories. Their empire and our republic, 
although in different hemispheres, and the inhabitants 
antipodes, have somewhat similar positions in what have 
been known as the old and the new worlds. Both 
countries are north of the northern tropic, and centrally 
in the same temperate zone. The national capitals of 
both are, as near as chance could place them, on the 
same parallel of latitude ; and the United States and 
China proper cover about the same amount of territory, 
enjoy very nearly the same climate, and are bounded 
largely by the great navigable seas and oceans. The 
states and territories of the one correspond very closely 
with the provinces of the other. But what a vast differ- 
ence in population ! Where we have one inhabitant the 
Chinese have ten. They count more living souls than 
do all the nations of Europe and both Americas. Indeed 
were the Emperor of China, in our republican way of 
doing things, to submit to the hard duty of shaking hands 
with his subjects, it would take more years to accomplish 
the civility, on the eight-hour system, than were accorded 
to the venerable Parr — who, as you all have heard, lived to 
the remarkable age of one hundred and fifty-two years 
— and this too without keeping up with the births that 
would occur during the time. Indeed, were he gifted 
with eternal life he never would complete this intermi- 
nable undertaking. 

Perhaps I may be pardoned, gentlemen, in saying, 
that before the discovery of America by Columbus, the 
earth was seemingly flat, and contained little else than 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 17 

Europe and Asia and a small part of Africa — at least all 
descriptions of it "would lead to such a supposition — and 
that the only route to the ancient dominions of the Great 
Kahn of Cathay (now China) was hy tedious overland 
travel, for the passage by sea around the Cape of Good 
Hope had not been discovered. The grand object of the 
voyage of Columbus, who had just come to the idea of 
the sphericity of the earth, was to find a new route to 
Cathay and Cipango by a westerly course ; and it is 
a remarkable fact that the Genoese adventurer, before 
starting on his grand voyage, actually provided hi m- 
self with letters to the great powers of those almost 
unknown places from the fortunate Ferdinand and 
Isabella, then the sovereigns of Spain. Sailing 
with a belief that where the ocean terminated land 
would have a beginning, the great discoverer of this 
western hemisphere, on the twenty -first day of October, 
1492, first of Europeans, set foot on ground, which in 
his belief was the desired land of his search : But in- 
stead he had found another continent ; and the passage 
so much needed, was subsequently, and but five years 
later, discovered in another direction, and the route, by 
doubling the Cape of Good Hope, was established, and 
the laborious journeys to the east through inhospitable 
wildernesses and dreary deserts ceased forever. 

But, gentlemen, if I say much more about ancient 
China, I shall leave no room for the present of that great 
empire : And I need not now tell you of the great me- 
chanical eff"ort of more than twenty centuries ago — the 
building of the great Chinese Wall, surpassing those of 
Babylon ; nor of the great canal, the longest in the 

3 



18 RECEPTION OF THE 

world, and completed before the birth of Columbus ; nor 
of block-printing, practised by the Chinese five hundred 
years before Faust, or Guttemberg, or SchoefFer ever 
dreamed of the art ; nor of the invention of gunpowder, 
known centuries before the days of Roger Bacon ; nor 
of the power of the loadstone, which helped direct the 
Chinese navigator long before the passage to Cathay 
was sought by Europeans, or our own country discovered 
through its instrumentality. Each of these themes would 
exhaust all the time, and more too, that is allotted to 
me. But all these have their significance, and all have 
had, and will continue to have, their influence for good. 
I may, however, without fear of complaint, say to 
our stranger friends, that we whom they are now visit- 
ing are a peculiar people ; that we all love liberty, 
and desire that others shall enjoy it with us ; that 
our small band of forefathers, about the time that 
the present dynasty commenced in China, peaceably 
sought these shores, driven from their transatlantic 
homes by vexations and persecutions, and here planted 
themselves and their principles ; and that we have 
grown up from such beginnings to what they now find 
us. From the first we opened our doors freely to all men ; 
no wayfarer, of any clime or tongue, was ever denied a 
welcome here. We had room for ourselves, and we 
had spare room for others. With the great Chinese 
sage, we have ever practised the Golden llule of our own 
ancestors, but better expressed by him, " Do not unto 
others what you would not have others do unto you " ; 
and I verily believe that in the wise sayings of some 
learned aphorist of the Orientals, we may be able to 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 



19 



find another of our good sayings, " Be virtuous and you 
will be happy," also much improved by reversal, " Be 
happy and you will be virtuous." 

It may be interesting for our visitors to know, 
that from this community first commenced the China 
trade of this country ; that from this and a neighbor- 
ing port sailed, till recently, all the merchant vessels 
that traversed the oceans between America and China ; 
and that much of the wealth of the old families of Bos- 
ton was obtained in the China and East India trade. 
But hereafter all trade with China will be attended with 
less difficulty than it was heretofore, — thanks to the 
present peaceable mission. The dawn has already ap- 
peared. China and the United States will hereafter 
exchange productions without let or hindrance, and 
the arts of peace and civilization will equally and 
reciprocally flourish in both. Keligion — the boon 
most dearly esteemed by all men — will be liberally 
enjoyed in both nations, and by all people. The day 
will soon come when we shall be the east and China 
the west ; when all travel between these mighty nations 
shall be over the justly-named Pacific Ocean, (for dis- 
tance from our east to our west will soon be annihila- 
ted,) and the western passage — the long-lost hope and 
desire of the ancient navigators — shall be accom- 
plished. 

Gentlemen, let us rejoice in the event that has 
brought us together this evening ; and while we give 
welcome to those who visit us for the first time, may we 
be sufficiently grateful for the benefits which must in 
course result from their benevolent and wise mission ! 



20 RECEPTION OF THE 

After music by Gilmore's Band, the Mayor announced as the 
first regular toast : 

" The President of the United States." 
The Band performed the American national air. 
The Mayor then announced as the second regular toast : 

"The Emperor of China." 
The Band performed the Chinese national air. 

The third regular toast, 

"The Chinese Embassy," 

was received with much enthusiasm. When the Mayor intro- 
duced Mr. Burlingame to respond, the company rose and gave 
nine cheers. 

SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAME. 

Mr. Mayor: In rising to respond to what yon have 
said, and to this cordial greeting-, I feel how ntterly 
inadequate are any words of mine to meet the require- 
ments of this occasion. Events are more eloquent than 
words. The presence here of my associates, with the 
sunshine of the Orient upon their faces, and the 
warmth of its fu'cs in their hearts, arouses more emo- 
tions than the most eloquent tongue can express. The 
land of Washington has greeted the land of Confucius. 
The great thoughts of the one have been wedded to 
the great deeds of the other. Nothing can be more 
impressive than the facts themselves. The Imperial 
and the Republican seals have been placed side by 
side upon a great bond of friendship forever. In the 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 21 

presence of this majestic past, the mcmhers of this 
mission would be ghid to rest and be silent ; but silence 
you will not have. And there is no rest for mortals save 
in the grave. Breaking, then, the silence which you will 
not allow, permit me, in the first place, to seize a 
thought expressed by yourself, where you say that the 
physical condition of China is like unto the physical 
condition of the United States. That is true. China 
lies along the Pacific, as the United States lie along 
the Atlantic. It has, as you say, the same area ; it has 
the same isothermal lines ; it has a like system of rivers 
and mountains. The great river Yangtse Kiang empties 
to a bucket-ful the same volume of water as the ^lissis- 
sippi ; the distant plains of Mongolia answer to the 
great prairies of the northwest. 

But they are not only like to each other in their 
physical aspects, they have relations to each other in 
other respects. They have moral and political relations 
of a similar character with ours. China is divided into 
provinces as this country is divided into States. The 
Chinese hold to the great doctrine that the people are 
the source of power. You vote by ballot ; in China 
they vote by competitive examination. You shout 
when your fellow-citizen is elected ; they shout when 
their scholar has received his degree They are scorn- 
ful of caste, and so are you. You tolerate every faith, 
and so do they. You proceed to make a law by peti- 
tion; they proceed by memorial. This memorial is 
recorded; it is passed to the Great Council; it is 
approved by the Government; it is handed over to the 
Great Secretariat ; and if it shall be found to be accord- 



22 RECEPTION OF THE 

ing to the tradition and the laws, that Secretariat is 
charged with its publication to the world. So that 
China is not a land of caprices, - — it is a land of laws. 

So, also, they are like unto us somewhat in their 
school system. It is voluntary. They pay great atten- 
tion to their schools. They hold the office of teacher 
to be the highest in the world. The great man in the 
Tsungle Yamen to-day, one of the greatest, perhaps the 
greatest scholar there, Tung Ta-jin, who presided over 
the translation of Wheaton's International Law, took 
from Mr. Wade, the British Secretary of Legation, a 
translation which he made of our own Longfellow's 
Psalm of Life, the first secular poem ever trans- 
lated into the Chinese language, and placed it 
upon a fan, which he sent by my hand to our great 
poet, that gift leading to a correspondence between 
these illustrious men. I say Tung Ta-jin makes it ever 
his boast, in the Tsungle Yamen, that he was once a 
poor school-teacher. 

But, however great may be the physical resemblances, 
however many resemblances may be found in other 
respects between them and the nations of the West, 
it is certain that we have much to learn from them, and 
they have much to learn from us. We have to learn 
from them to respect old age ; we have to learn from 
them sobriety ; we have to learn from them good 
manners ; we have to learn from them habits of schol- 
arship ; we have to learn from them how to cultivate 
fish ; we have to learn from them much in relation to 
agriculture, much of the effect of heat and cold, and 
light and shade upon plants ; how to irrigate, how to 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 23 

mauiirc the laud. Indeed, it would be a most profitable 
employment for some mau of observing powers, some 
scientific mau, to go to China and record the facts he 
finds there. The Chinese may not be able to give him 
the reasons why they do this thing, or why they do that 
thing, but he would find that, through long ages of 
experience, they had at last ascertained the right way. 
I do not know of so wide an unreaped field for a scientific 
man, and I trust that the greatest living naturalist. Prof. 
Agassiz, '^^•ill next year make an expedition to the Chi- 
nese Empire. 

But not to follow your suggestion- too far, I say, we 
have much to learn from them. We have many wise 
maxims to acquire from them. They have much, also, 
to learn from us. They have all the modern sciences, — 
they have all those things to learn from us, which are 
the result of our necessities. We lived far apart, and 
we invented the steamboat, the railroad, the telegraph, 
to bring us nearer and nearer together. 

But without pursuing this line of thought further, 
permit me to give you something more nearly relating 
to the present. I leave everything that may be said 
about the ancient sages of China who lived before Soc- 
rates, to the distinguished gentleman on my left, [Mr. 
Ralph AValdo Emerson,] who knows much more of 
them than I do ; and I come now to consider, for a mo- 
ment, the treaty which has just been concluded between 
the United States and China. And I shall not, I assure 
you, trespass upon your time to enter into any elaborate 
exposition of that treaty. No, sir, I leave the exposi- 
tion of that treaty to the distinguished Senator on my 



24 RECEPTION OF THE 

right, who was its champion in the Senate, and who 
procured for it a unanimous vote. Permit me to say, 
briefly, that that treaty had its origin in the desire to 
give the control of China to herself, in opposition to 
that aggressive spirit which would take it from her and 
give it to the caprice of interest and to the rude energy 
of force. It had its origin in the belief that institutions 
which had withstood all the mutations of time, have 
something in them worthy of consideration ; in the be- 
lief that institutions, cherished unanimously by one-third 
of the human race, may possibly be the best institutions 
for the people of China, and that at least they are enti- 
tled to hold on to them until they shall be changed by 
fair argument. That treaty had its origin in, and in fact 
is the outgrowth of, that co-operative policy which was 
agreed to by the representatives of the Western pow- 
ers recently assembled at Peking ; that policy substituted 
for the old doctrine of violence one of fair diplomatic 
action ; so that if a Consul and the Taoutai could not 
agree, before war should ensue, the question at issue 
should be referred to Peking, and thence to the home 
governments. That policy was in brief an agreement, 
upon the part of the representatives of the treaty 
powers, that they would not interfere in the internal 
affairs of China ; that they would give to the treaties 
a fair and Christian construction; that they would 
abandon the so-called concession doctrine, and that 
they never would menace the territorial integrity of 
China. On these principles rests the security of China. 
They were warmly approved by the Government of 
China which naturally desired that they should find 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 25 

expression in a more solemn form than they were in at 
the present time. The evidence of this co-operative 
policy rested in the archives of distant legations, in the 
great despatches of Sir Frederick Bruce, who shed a new 
lustre upon diplomacy in the East. I say that China, 
feeling the advantage of these principles, desired that 
they should be carried forward into more solemn forms. 
Accordingly they have, as agreed to by the great treaty 
powers of the West, passed into the unbending text of 
the treaty recently made at Washington. 

Now, in a word, what is that treaty 1 In the first 
place, it declares the neutrality of the Chinese waters 
in opposition to the pretensions of the ex-territoriality 
doctrine, that inasmuch as the persons and the property 
of the people of the foreign powers were under the ju- 
risdiction of those powers, therefore it was the right of 
parties contending with each other to attack each other 
in the Chinese Avaters, thus making those waters the 
place of their conflict. This treaty traverses all such 
absurd pretensions. It strikes down the so-called con- 
cession doctrines, under which the citizens of different 
countries, located upon spots of land in the treaty ports, 
had come to believe that they could take jurisdiction 
there, not only of their own citizens, not only of the 
persons and property of their own people, but of tlic 
Chinese and the people of other countries. When this 
question was brought under discussion and referred to 
the home governments, not by the Chinese, originally, 
but by those foreign nations who felt that their treaty 
rights were being abridged by these concession doctrines, 
the distant foreign countries could not stand the discus- 



26 RECEPTION OF THE 

sion for a moment. And I aver that every treaty pow- 
er has abandoned the concession doctrmes, thongh some 
of their officials at the present time in China undertake 
to contend for it — undertake to expel the Chinese, to 
attack the Chinese, to protect the Chinese as though 
the territory did not belong to the Chinese government. 
China has never abandoned her eminent domain — 
never abandoned on that territory her jurisdiction doc- 
trine ; and I trust she never will. This treaty strikes 
down all the pretensions about concessions of terri- 
tory. 

Again, this treaty recognizes China as an equal among 
the nations, in opposition to the old doctrine that be- 
cause she was not a Christian nation she could not be 
placed in the roll of nations. But I will not discuss 
that question. There is the greatest living authority 
upon Eastern questions here to-night. He has stated 
that position more fully than anybody else, while his 
heart has leaned ever to the side of the Chinese. I say 
China has been put on terms of equality. Her subjects 
have been put upon a footing with those of the most 
favored nations, so that now the C/hinaman stands with 
the Briton or the Frenchman, the Russian, the Prussian, 
or the subjects of any of the great powers. And not 
only so, but by a Consular clause in that treaty they 
are given a diplomatic status by which those privileges 
can be defended. That treaty also strikes down all dis- 
abilities on account of religious faith. It recalls the 
great doctrine of the constitution which gives to a man 
the right to hold any faith which his conscience may 
dictate to him. Under that treaty the Chinese may 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 27 

spread their marble altars to the blue vault of licaveu, 
and may worship the spirit which dwells beyond. That 
treaty opens the gleaming gates of our public institu- 
tions to the students of China. That treaty strikes down 
or reprobates — that is the word — the infixmous Coolie 
trade. It sustains the great law of 1862, drafted by 
Mr. Eliot of Massachusetts, and pledges the nation for- 
ever to hold that trade criminal. While it does this, it 
recognizes the great doctrine that a man may change 
his home and his allegiance. While it strikes at the 
root of the Coolie trade, it invites free immigration 
into the country of those sober and industrious 
people by whose quiet labor we have been enabled 
to push the Pacific Railroad over the summit of the 
Sierra Nevada. Woollen mills have been enabled to 
run on account of this labor with profit. And the great 
crops of California, more valuable than all her gold, 
have been gathered by them. I am glad the United 
States had the courage to apply their great principles of 
equality. I am glad that while they apply their doc- 
trines to the swarming millions of Europe, they are not 
afraid to apply them to the tawny race of Tamerlane 
and of Genghis Khan. 

There is, also, another article which is important to 
China. It has been the habit of the foreigners in China 
to lecture the Chinese and to say what they should do and 
what they should not do ; to dictate, and say when they 
should build railroads, when they should build tele- 
graphs ; and, in fact, there has been an attempt to take 
entire possession of their affairs. This treaty denounces 
all such pretensions. It says, particularly, that it is for 



28 RECEPTION OF THE 

the Chinese themselves to fix the time when they will 
initiate reforms, — when they will build and when they 
will refuse to build, — that they are the masters of their 
own affairs ; that it is for them to make commercial 
regulations, and to do whatever they will, which is not 
in violation of existing treaties and the laws of nations, 
within their own territory. I am glad that that is in 
the treaty ; and while the treaty expresses the opinion 
of the United States in favor of giving to China the 
control of her own affairs, it assumes that China is to 
progress, and it offers to her all the resources of 
Western science, and asks other nations to do the 
same. 

The United States have asked nothing for themselves. 
I am proud of it. I am proud that this country has 
made a treaty which is, every line of it, in the present 
interests of China, though in the resulting interests of 
all mankind. I am glad that the country has risen up 
to a level with the great occasion. I am glad that she 
has not asked any mean advantages, such as weaken 
one people and do not exalt another. By leaving China 
free in all these respects, she feels secure, or will feel 
secure when these principles are adopted. When she 
feels that the railroad and the telegraph are not to be 
instruments by which she is to be disrupted or destroyed 
then she will come out of her seclusion and enter upon 
a course of trade, the importance of which, and the 
amount of which, no man can compute. The first thing 
for her to have is security ; and this treaty gives her 
security. It places her broadly under international law. 

I know this treaty will be attacked. You will Avonder 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 29 

at it. It will be attacked by that spirit of the old indigo 
planters iu India, which opposed British reforms there ; 
and by such as opposed Emancipation in tlie West 
Indies; it will be resisted by the spirit of the old opium 
snuiggler in China. But notwithstanding all this, I be- 
lieve that treaty, or the princi})les of that treaty, will 
make the tour of the world, because it is founded in jus- 
tice. This mission, feeling confidence in the rectitude of 
their intentions, confidence in the merits of the policy 
which they propose, do not ask what reception they 
shall have in the countries to which they shall go, but 
trust themselves fairly and fully to the spirit of "West- 
ern civilization. 

And now, having detained you too long, permit me to 
thank you all for the kind manner in which you have 
listened to what I have had to say. I thank you, Sir, 
for your personal allusions. I thank dear old Boston 
for her grand demonstrations of good will. I thank the 
American Government that it has placed a great ques- 
tion beyond the reach of individual misfortune. And 
now, having said this, the mission will press along the 
line of its diplomatic duty to other fields of effort. 

The Mayor then announced as the fourth regular toast, — 

" The Conimou\vc;iltli of Massachusetts." 

He called upon His Excellency, Alexander 11. IJulhjck, to 
respond. 

SPEECH OF GOVERNOR BULLOCK. 

Mr. Mayor : The impressive ceremony and the cor- 
dial reception of the evening have been conducted so 
far and so well that no duty remains for me save offi- 



30 RECEPTION OF THE 

cially to assure our distinguished guests that I heartily 
unite with the Capital in all the honors accorded to 
them. Aside from the gratification we feel in extending 
this welcome to our own fellow-citizen, now returned 
to us as the head of an august mission, I surely may be 
permitted to express your sentiments as well as my 
own in recalling, with some satisfaction, the part which 
our Commonwealth has borne on the large field of 
American diplomacy in the recent historical period. 
With Mr. Adams at the British Court, Mr. Motley on 
the Continent, Mr. Burlingame in the great empire of 
the East, our senior Senator, (Mr. Sumner,) at the head 
of foreign affairs in the Senate, — the fortress of our 
diplomatic security, — and Governor Banks in a like 
position in the House of Representatives, — the people 
of Massachusetts have had reason to be .satisfied Avitli 
the share committed to them in the civic responsibilities 
of our time. It is not to the present point that I should 
say that each of these gentlemen has performed his duty 
so well that we cannot readily see how it could have 
been done better ; for the world knows that already. 
But it is permissible that I should say, in view of those 
broad relations which these citizens of our own have 
sustained on the three continents of civilization, that 
the future historian of the Commonwealth must record 
that her fame never shone brighter, more conspicuous, 
or more beneficent than during this period. I may, 
therefore, be permitted, both as magistrate and as citi- 
zen, to allow my local pride to culminate this evening, 
as it blends with your patriotic pleasure, in paying 
honors to those who have proved such good masters of 
international rights and courtesies. 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 31 

As an American I rejoice in the recent events which 
have developed into something almost like an alliance 
for the welfare of the world, the imperial powers of the 
East and the West. After all that has occurred in the 
last seven years, W'hat patriotic citizen of the Ignited 
States does not welcome the friendly hand reached out 
to us from Russia and China ; — co-terminous countries, 
covering one-fifth part of the hahitable globe, having 
institutions in many respects altogether unlike our own, 
but in some particulars quite in sympathy with ours, 
eager to join their histories and destinies w itli ours in a 
spirit of conciliation and unity which may hereafter 
become the protectorate of the peace of all the nations. 
From the former of these two, at a time w^hen we failed 
to receive from countries nearer to us that encourage- 
ment of our nationality which w^e had a right to ex- 
pect, there came for us no voice or wish, expressed or 
suppressed, that did not give aid and comfort to every 
heart which was in allegiance to our government. In 
my remembrance of this, all political names of govern- 
ments have lost their power. There is a chord of 
sympathy that sounds the name of Russia pleasantest of 
them all in my ears. The purchase of Alaska becomes 
doubly agreeable. I thank Mr. Seward and Congress 
for making the trade. 

And now, after the war, just when we are to spread 
sail on a fresh career of prosperity at home and consid- 
eration abroad, let us be happy to receive, in advance 
of all the governments of Europe, His Excellency Mr. 
Burlingame and his Associate Envoys from China. Tlu^ 
specific provisions of their recent treaty with us may or 



32 RECEPTION OF THE 

may not comprise any striking innovations on the past. 
As to that I do not much profess to know. I have 
been trying to get some information from my friend 
Teh, who sits by my side, who, I will say, speaks the 
English language with a compass and flexibility and 
force which our own countrymen can seldom surpass, 
and some of them can hardly equal, after this hour in 
the evening. I introduced him to my late comrade in 
the legislative halls, Mr. Gushing, Avho was the pioneer 
in American diplomacy towards China, and who went 
out as Commissioner to China (if that was the title of 
his office) in 1842 or '43, and, to my surprise, I found, 
when I sought to make some comparisons between that 
time and the present, that my young friend Teh was 
born three years after Mr. Cushing returned, and that 
Mr. Cushing and I were much older than my Chinese 
friend. But, however that may be, the tone, the tem- 
per, the spirit in which this Embassy comes to us — 
that is a great deal — that inaugurates a new era in the 
relations of two powerful peoples. It is enough for 
me to know that it is in the interest of justice to the 
individual man of both nations ; that it is in recognition 
of the obligations of all the reciprocities of humanity ; 
that it is in aid and promotion of international com- 
merce, which is the handmaid of Equity and Christi- 
anity. So that, henceforth, the pledged honor of Ameri- 
cans and Chinamen shall be more potent for all the 
purposes of travel and trade and religion and civiliza- 
tion, than a thousand British cannon bellowing against 
the gates of the Celestial Empire, — gates which shall 
open in all time to come more easily to the force of fra- 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 33 

ternity than to the force of arms. Why shoukl not 
China be respected for that she has resisted with phicki- 
ness, according to her traditions and with her hearts 
and arms, every attempt to blow open her portals ? — 
for that she sends her Envoys to-day to make public 
tender at the doors of our Capitol of her desu'e to 
establish, as the law of nations, the Golden Rule, 
whether it comes to her from Confucius, or to us from 
authority infinitely higher'? 

Let us respect the authority of existing and ancient 
nations. One is especially before us now that has 
lengthened and enduring annals. As the oldest civi- 
lized community of the United States, we of Massachu- 
setts trace our record backward over only two centuries 
and a half. And that, we are apt to think, furnishes 
ample and dignified work of research for several histori- 
cal, antiquarian and genealogical societies, in examin- 
ing ancient mounds, exhuming corroded tomahawks, 
and bringing to the light of our day the virtues and the 
frailties of some eight or nine generations of men. Hoav, 
then, can we not respect a people of a record of five 
thousand years? You may call them rude; but you 
have sought their commerce, and have scattered among 
all your homes the products of their luxury, their art, 
and their labor. You may call them barbarians ; but 
with their own sense of right they can call you the 
same. You may doubt their elemental principles of 
government ; but they have existed having a govern- 
ment ages before you were known, and more recently 
when you were not sure that you could maintain and 
transmit a government. You may question the claim 

5 



34 RECEPTION OF THE 

of their literature to common respect ; but it ante-dates 
all that is known by us of the thought and record which 
we call sacred. You may ask, if you will, why China 
comes here with an American citizen for her Ambassa- 
dor, to demand a high place of dignity among the 
countries ; and she answers, with the eloquence of a 
long and masterly history, that she comes offering only 
terms of international equality as one of the peoples and 
governments of the world of to-day ; compacted and 
ribbed by the vicissitudes of fifty centuries ; self-subsist- 
ing against all efforts to assail or invade her; but willing, 
anxious now, to welcome the sails of your commerce 
into her ports, the voices of your missionaries into her 
interior, and the rights of your citizens within her juris- 
diction. In that spirit, and in that cause, I w^elcome 
Mr. Burlingame and his associates, and bid them God- 
speed on their way to the other countries. 

The Mayor then announced as the fifth regular toast, — 

"The Supplementary Treaty with China"; 

and called upon the Honorable Charles Sumner, Chairman of 
the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States 
Senate, to respond. 

HON. CHARLES SUMNEr's SPEECH. 

Mr. Mayor : I cannot speak on this interesting oc- 
casion without first declaring the happiness I enjoy at 
meeting my friend of many years in the exalted posi- 
tion which he now holds. Besides being my personal 
friend, he was also an honored associate in representing 
the good people of this community, and in advancing a 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 



35 



great cause, which he championed with memorable elo- 
quence and fidelity. Such are no common ties. Permit 
me to say that this splendid welcome, now offered by the 
municipal authorities of Boston, is only a natural ex- 
pression of the sentiments which must prevail in this 
community. Here his labors and triumphs began. 
Here, in your early applause and approving voices, he 
first tasted of that honor which is now his in such am- 
ple measure. He is one of us, who, going forth into a 
strange country, has come back with its highest trusts 
and dignities. Once the representative of a single Con- 
gressional district, he now represents the most populous 
nation of the globe. Once the representative of little 
more than a third part of Boston, he is now the repre- 
sentative of more than a third part- of the human race. 
The population of the globe is estimated at twelve hun- 
dred millions ; that of China at more than four hundred 
millions, and sometimes even at five hundred millions. 

If, in this position, there be much to excite wonder, 
there is still more for gratitude in the unparalleled op- 
portunity which it aff'ords. What we all ask is oppor- 
tunity. Here is opportunity on a surpassing scale — to 
be employed, I am sure, so as to advance the best inter- 
ests of the Human Family; and, if these are ad- 
vanced, no nation can sufi'er. Each is contained in all. 
AVith justice and generosity as the reciprocal rule, and 
nothing else can be the aim of this great Embassy, there 
can be no limits to the immeasurable consequences. 
For myself, I am less solicitous with regard to con- 
cessions or privileges, than with regard to that spirit 
of friendship and good neighborhood, which embraces 



36 RECEPTION OF THE 

alike the distant and the near, and, when .once estab- 
lished, renders all else easy. 

The necessary resnlt of the present experiment in 
diplomacy will be to make the countries which it visits 
better known to the Chinese, and also to make the 
Chinese better known to them. Each will know the 
other better and will better comprehend that condition 
of mutual dependence which is the law of humanity. 
In the relations among nations, as in common life, this 
is of infinite value. Thus far, I fear that the Chinese 
are poorly informed with regard to us. I am sure that 
we are poorly informed with regard to them. We know 
them through the porcelain on our tables with its law- 
less perspective, and the tea chest with its unintelligible 
hieroglyphics. There are two pictures of them in the 
literature of our language, which cannot fail to leave an 
impression. The first is in Paradise Lost, where Milton, 
always learned even in his poetry, represents Satan as 
descending in his flight, 

on the barren plains 

Of Sericana, where Cliineses drive, 

With sails and wind their cany wagons light. 

The other is that admirable address on the study of the 
law of nature and nations, where Sir James Mackintosh, 
in words of singular felicity, alludes to " the tame but 
ancient and immovable civilization of China." It will 
be for us now to enlarge these pictures and to fill the 
canvas with life. 

I do not know if it has occurred to our honojed guest, 
that he is not the first stranger who, after sojourning in 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 37 

this distant imkuowii land, has come back loaded with 
its honors, and Avith messages to the Christian powers. 
He is not without a predecessor in his mission. There is 
another career as marvellous as his own. I refer to the 
Venetian Marco Polo, whose reports, once discredited as 
the fables of a traveller, are now recognized among the 
sources of history, and especially of geographical knowl- 
edge. Nobody can read them without feeling their 
verity. It w as in the latter part of the far away 1 3th 
century, that this enterprising Venetian, in company 
with his father and uncle, all of them merchants, jour- 
neyed from Venice, by the way of Constantinople, 
Trebizond on the Black Sea and Central Asia, until they 
reached first the land of Prcster John, and then that 
golden country, known as Cathay, where the great ruler, 
Kublai Khan, treated them with gracious consideration, 
and employed young Polo as his ambassador. This 
was none other than China, and the great ruler, called 
the Grand Khan, was none other than the first of its 
Mongolian dynasty having his imperial residence in the 
immense city of Kambalu, or Peking. After many years 
of illustrious service, the Venetian, with his compan- 
ions, was dismissed with splendor and riches, charged 
with letters for European sovereigns, as our Bostonian 
is charged with similar letters now. There were let- 
ters for the Pope, the King of France, the King of 
Spain, and other Christian princes. It does not appear 
that England was expressly designated. Her name, so 
great now, was not at that time on the visiting list of 
the distant Emperor. Such are the contrasts in national 
life. Marco Polo with his companions, reached A'enice 



38 RECEPTION OF THE 

on his return in 1295, at the very time when Dante in 
Florence was meditating his divine poem, and when 
Roger Bacon, in England, was astonishing the age with 
his knowledge. These were two of his greatest con- 
temporaries. 

The return of the Venetian to his native city was 
attended by incidents which have not occurred among 
us. Bronzed by long residence under the sun of the 
East, — wearing the dress of a Tartar, — and speaking 
his native language with difficulty, it was some time be- 
fore he could persuade his friends of his identity. Hap- 
pily there is no question on the identity of our returned 
fellow-citizen ; and surely it cannot be said that he 
speaks his native language with difficulty. There was 
a dinner given at Venice as now at Boston, and the 
Venetian dinner, after the lapse of nearly five hundred 
years, still lives in glowing description. On this occa- 
sion Marco Polo, with his companions, appeared first in 
long robes of crimson satin reaching to the floor, which, 
after the guests had washed their hands, were changed 
for other robes of crimson damask, and then again, 
after the first course of the dinner, for other robes of 
crimson velvet, and at the conclusion of the banquet, for 
the ordinary dress worn by the rest of the company. 
Meanwhile the other costly garments were distributed 
in succession among the attendants at the table. In all 
your magnificence to-night, Mr. Mayor, I have seen no 
such largess. Then was brought forward the coarse 
threadbare clothes in which they had travelled, when, 
on ripping the lining and patches with a knife, costly 
jewels, in sparkling showers, leaped forth before the 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 



39 



eyes of the company, who for a time were motionless 
with wonder. Then at hist, says the Italian chronicler, 
every doubt was banished, and all were satisfied that 
these were the valiant and honorable gentlemen of the 
house of Polo. I do not relate this history in order to 
suggest any such operation on the dress of our returned 
fellow-citizen. No such evidence is needed to assure us 
of his identity. 

The success of Marco Polo is amply attested. From 
his habit of speaking of millions of people and millions 
of money, he was known as millioni^ or the millionaire, 
being the earliest instance in history of a designation 
so common in our prosperous age. But better than 
" millions " was the knowledge he imparted, and the 
impulse that he gave to that science, which teaches the 
configuration of the globe, and the place of nations on 
its face. His travels, as dictated by him, were repro- 
duced in various languages, and, after the invention of 
printing, the book was multiplied in more than fifty 
editions. Unquestionably it prepared the way for the 
two greatest geographical discoveries of modern times, 
that of the Cape of Good Hope, by Vasco de Gama, 
and the New World, by Chiistopher Columbus. One 
of his admirers, a learned German, does not hesitate to 
say that, when, in the long series of ages, we seek the 
three men, who, by the influence of their discoveries, 
have most contributed to the progress of geography and 
the knowledge of the globe, the modest name of the 
Venetian finds a place in the same line with Alexander 
the Great and Christopher Columbus. It is well known 
that the imagination of the (ienocse navigator was fired 



40 RECEPTION OF THE 

by the revelations of the Venetian, and that, in his 
mind, all the countries embraced by his transcendent 
discovery were none other than the famed Cathay, with 
its various dependencies. In his report to the Spanish 
Sovereigns, Cuba was nothing else than Zimpangu, or 
Japan, as described by the Venetian, and he thought 
himself near a grand Khan, meaning, as he says, a king 
of kings. Columbus was mistaken. He had not 
reached Cathay or the grand Khan ; but he had discov- 
ered a new world, destined in the history of civilization 
to be more than Cathay, and, in the lapse of time, to 
welcome the Ambassador of the grand Khan. 

The Venetian, on his return home, journeyed out of 
the East, westward. Our Marco Polo on his return 
home, journeyed out of the West, eastward ; and yet 
they both came from the same region. Their com- 
mon starting-point was Peking. This change is typical 
of that transcendent revolution under whose influence 
the Orient will become the Occident. Journeying 
westward, the fi.rst welcome is from the nations of 
Europe. Journeying eastward, the fii'st welcome is 
from our Republic. It only remains that this wel- 
come should be extended until it opens a pathway 
for the mightiest commerce of the world, and embraces 
within the sphere of American activity that ancient 
ancestral empire, where population, industry and edu- 
cation, on an unprecedented scale, create resources 
and necessities on an unprecedented scale also. See 
to it, merchants of the United States, and you, mer- 
chants of Boston, that this opportunity is not lost. 

And this brings me, Mr. Mayor, to the Treaty, which 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 



■il 



you invited iiie to discuss. But I will not now enter 
upon this topic. If you did not call me to order for 
speaking too long, I fear I should be called to order in 
another place for undertaking to speak of a Treaty 
which has not yet been proclaimed by the President. 
One remark I will make and take the consequences. 
The treaty does not propose much ; but it is an excel- 
lent beginning, and, I trust, through the good offices of 
our fellow- citizen, the honored plenipotentiary, will un- 
lock those great Chinese gates which have been bolted 
and barred for long centuries. . The Embassy is more 
than the treaty, because it will prepare the way for 
further intercourse and will help that new order of 
things which is among the promises of the Future. 

The Mayor then introduced Dr. Ohver Wendell Holmes, who 
recited the following poem : 

POEM BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 

Brothers, whom we may not reach 
Through the veil of ahen speech, 
"Welcome ! welcome 1 eyes can tell 
What the lips in vain would spell; 
Words that hearts can understand, 
Brothers from the Tlowery Land ! 

We, the evening's latest born, 
Hail the children of the morn ! 
We, the new creation's birth, 
Greet the lords of ancient earth 
From their storied walls and towers 
Wandering to these tents of ours ! 

Land of wonders, fair Cathay, 
Who long hast shunned the staring day, 
6 



42 RECEPTION OF THE 

Hid in mists of poets' dreams 
By thy blue and yellow streams; 
Let us thy shadowed form behold; 
Teach us as thou didst of old. 

Knowledge dwells with length of days ; 
Wisdom walks in ancient ways ; 
Thine the compass that could guide 
A nation o'er the stormy tide 
Scourged by passions, doubts and fears, 
Safe through thrice a thousand years ! 

Looking from thy turrets gray 
Thou hast seen the world's decay; 
Egypt drowning in her sands; 
Athens rent by robbers' hands; 
Kome, the wild barbarian's prey, 
Like a storm-cloud swept away : 

Looking from thy turrets gray 
Still we see thee. Where are they? 
And lo ! a new-born nation waits, 
Sitting at the golden gates 
That glitter by the sunset sea — 
Waits with outspread arms for thee ! 

Open wide, ye gates of gold, 
To the Dragon's banner-fold I 
Builders of the mighty wall, 
Bid your mountain barriers fall ! 
So may the girdle of the sun 
Bind the East and West in one. 

Till Nevada's breezes fan 
The snowy peaks of Ta-Sieue-Shan — 
Till Erie blends its waters blue 
With the waves of Tung-Ting-IIu — 
Till deep Missouri lends its flow 
To swell the rushing Hoang-Ho ! 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 43 

Dr. Holmes's poem was heartily applamlcd. At tlio ooii- 
clurfion the Mayor announced, as the sixth regular toast, — 

•' Diplomacy," 

and called upon the Ilonorahle Caleb Gushing, formerly United 
States Commissioner to China, to respond. 

Mr. Pickering, a member of the Committee of Arrangements, 
said : " I propose nine cheers for the only minister to China 
who bears a Chinese name, — ' Coo-S/ting.' ' 

The cheers were given with much enthusiasm. 

HON. CALEB CUSHING's SPEECH. 

I rise to discharge the duty assigned nie on this 
occasion, with sincere satisfaction, as affording an op- 
portunity to express my respect for yourself, and the 
city over whose administration you preside, as well as 
for your eminent guests. I rejoice to see that they re- 
ceive peculiar attention here. It especially becomes 
this State, so many of whose merchant princes have 
been, and are, the merchant princes of China also, to 
welcome the ambassadors of China. It is fitting that 
the representatives of a country where education, 
science, literature, the cultivation of the spiritual as 
distinguished from the material man, are held in the 
highest estimation, should meet with sympathetic ac- 
claim in the State of Massachusetts. And here, above 
all, should welcome, acclaim and applause be awarded 
to an embassy, which, while representing the power 
and the wisdom of the Ta Tsing Empire in the person 
of these, the native subjects of the great Yellow Khan, 
has at its head a statesman who attained distinction in 



44 RECEPTION OF THE 

the first instance as a representative of Massachusetts 
in the Congress of the United States. 

To him (Mr. Burlingame), therefore, at the outset, be 
all honor rendered. I, as the humble pioneer in that 
new region of diplomacy which he has explored to 
such great results, can well judge of the magnitude of 
the events he personifies, and presume to say that 
no imagination of oriental romance could conceive 
for its hero a career of usefulness and glory more mar- 
vellous than that which is exhibited by the Minister of 
the United States in China becoming its Minister to the 
Powers of Europe and America. 

And yet, on reflecting on this incident, it ceases to as- 
tonish me. I take pleasure in saying here, in the hear- 
ing of all the members of the Embassy, and especially 
of the two eminent Ta-jins and their countrymen, what 
I have never failed to say on other proper occasions, that 
the Manchu and Chinese statesmen, with whom it was 
my fortune to come in official contact in China, were men 
of the highest cultivation and accomplishment, versed 
in the direction of the largest public afi"airs, possessed of 
thorough comprehension of political and international 
questions, and worthy in all respects to be ranked with 
the most accomplished statesmen and diplomatists of 
Christendom. Such men were capable of rising to the 
height of any exigency which the progress of time and 
events might require the Chinese Empire to adopt. 

Thus it happened that my embassy to China was 
rather a brief pleasure trip than a diplomatic labor : 
For the intelligence and the frankness of Commis- 
sioner Keying soon removed all difficulties out of my 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 45 

path. And we see ample attestation in tlie commission 
entrusted to Mr. Burlingamc of the high character of 
the men now at the head of affairs in China. 

^ly name, susceptible as it is of adoption in Chinese 
writing and speech, — to which a gentleman just now 
kindly alluded, — had its inconveniences as well as 
conveniences ; for the sound represents that expression 
which, in China, is applied to personages who, in the 
ordinary transactions of the missionaries, are called 
" venerable sages " or " venerable saints." In a word, 
to those persons in the history of China, of whom Con- 
fucius is the representative man ; and when made 
aware of this fact, I was compelled to enter into a most 
confidential conference with my own conscience as to 
what name I ought to bear. I did feel somewhat " ven- 
erable" then, I confess, — much more so than I do now: 
For now I have become disillusioned and disabused of 
many things ; and there is but little left for me which 
seems entitled to respect. Hardly more than two things 
have ceased to be subjects of illusion, — woman's vir- 
tue and man's honor. The changes of time have left 
little else upon which the presumptions of the press, 
of the bar, and of the senate, [turning to Mr. Sumner, 
amid the laughter of the company] have not placed 
their profaning hands. And so, also, upon the ques- 
tion of sanctity. I really did not feel justified in pre- 
suming to attribute to myself any such qualities ; and, 
with the aid of skilful friends, I was enabled to discover 
that it was easy to change the sign from " venerable " 
to " venerator," and thus I became a very respectable 
personage, as Coo-Sh'uKj — the venerator of the sages 
and saints. Beyond that 1 did not aspire. 



46 RECEPTION OF THE 

My embassy to China was but the humble beginning 
of what we noAv behold, — of this great change in the 
relations of China to Europe and America. 

We have listened with admiration this evening to the 
clear and instructive exposition given by Mr. Burlin- 
game of the treaty which he and the American Secre- 
tary of State (Mr. Seward) have just completed, and 
the prompt despatch of which has been equally hon- 
orable to our Executive and our Senate. Of that initia- 
tory treaty it is impossible to exaggerate the probable 
consequences. In order in the least degree to appre- 
ciate the fact, we must recollect the history and remem- 
ber the condition of China. 

The distinguished Senator of Massachusetts on my 
left (Mr. Sumner), has referred to the fact that Marco 
Polo, after his return from China, was called " Messer 
Millioni." I think that title was applied to him in 
derision. I think his countrymen distrusted his tales of 
the millions of the population of China, — the millions of 
its revenue, and the millions of its cultivated scholars ; for 
we may remember that long after his day, and even so 
late as the time of the Stuarts, Congreve said, in exhib- 
iting a personation of mendacity, " Ferdinand Mendez 
Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first mag- 
nitude." Why did Pinto become the symbol of mendac- 
ity % We know now that every word he uttered was 
true ; that he was one of those many brilliant voyagers 
of Spain and Portugal of whom Vasco de Gama and 
Christopher Columbus, as mentioned this evening, were 
but higher examples ; many of whom left interesting 
narrations of their voyages, and that Pinto's trutliful 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 47 

relations of the grandeur of China, of its popuhitiou, of 
its wealth, of its advancement in civilization, of its 
agricultnre, of its manufactures, seemed so portentous, 
so incredible, that no man believed what he uttered, 
and attributed it all to the invention of a fertile but 
unscrupulous imagination. I say, we now know it was 
all true ; and that neither Polo nor Pinto unfolded to 
us a tithe of the wonders of China. 

We know that there is in farther Asia an Empire 
which has subsisted for thousands of years, with an un- 
changed identity of civilization ; with a people, at a 
period anterior to all our records of history, sacred or 
profane, highly cultivated, intellectual, literary, scienti- 
fic ; with arts of agriculture and manufacture, and with 
a commerce, such as we now see. 

We know that as they are now, such they were when 
our forefathers were but half naked savages in the wilds 
of Britain or Germany. Their astronomical records 
carry us far beyond all the science of the Chaldees and 
the Brahmans. Whether in the arts of immortality, like 
printing, or those of mortality, like gunpowder, they 
are our masters. They are the only people of ancient 
or modern times, with whom moral and intellectual cul- 
ture outrank all other things, and constitute the sole 
avenue to civil station and power, and they are a people 
without parallel in the durability and the vastness of 
the adaptability of their institutions. What living 
language can count with the Chinese its thousands of 
ages of life? What nation but China showed itself in 
the times of Homer the same as at this day ? ^Vllere, 
save in China, has the world ever seen a homogeneous 



48 RECEPTION OF THE 

people, equal in numbers to the whole of Europe, 
constituting a single self-sustaining nation ? 

AVhile the magnificent empire of the Assyrians has 
passed away like a troubled vision, and left no trace but 
a few mounds of earth on the banks of the Euphrates 
or the Tigris ; while, also, the populous and powerful 
kingdom of Egypt is now manifest only by its massive 
tombs, temples and pyramids half buried in the sands of 
the desert ; while Greece and Rome have also all but dis- 
appeared, and are no longer potential except in the 
traditions they have transmitted to us ; at an epoch 
anterior to the rise of all these nations, the Chinese 
Empire was great, powerful, populous, civilized in 
every possible conception of the word civilized. There 
is no definition of civilization, as applied to Athens 
or to Rome, there is no definition as applied to Mem- 
phis or to Babylon, which does not apply with equal 
verity to China long before either Babylon or Mem- 
phis existed. 

And possessing a marvellous tenacity of existence, 
there China stands, sublime in the greatness alike and 
the unity of her civilization, unchanged by the tempests 
of five thousand years. Foreign war has in vain 
assailed her. Domestic insurrection has torn her asun- 
der, and the wounds have been healed with a recuper- 
ative vitality which seems to presage an immortality 
of empire. I say, there China stands, with her four 
hundred millions of human beings, exhibiting the only 
spectacle the human race ever did exhibit of such an 
immense mass of people, holding to the faith of their 
fathers, holding to their peculiar science, literature and 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 49 

art, holding, also, to their government, — maintaining 
Avliat no European nation has ever had the statesmanship 
or art to do, supreme power over a region of earth larger 
than Europe, and over a population larger than the 
population of Europe. 

Contrast that with our own petty states of Christen- 
dom ]My friend [Mr. Burlingame] will warrant me in 
saying, that there are more provinces of the Chinese 
Empire, each one of them equalling in population, in 
wealth, in power, in the results of civilization, in agri- 
cultural commodities, in manufactures, in the mechanic 
arts, — each one of them, I say, equalling in every 
one of these incidents of civilization the proudest 
of the kingdoms of Europe. How is it to-day with 
Europe? There we see England, France, Prussia, 
Austria, Russia, each engaged in destroying itself by the 
vast armies they maintain, exhausting the resources of 
their people, wasting labor, wasting life, wasting all the 
means of usefulness which this divine creation of govern- 
ment rightly used can give to man ; wasting them by 
their intestine wars or by their perpetual apprehension 
of wars ; while in China, a larger mass of human beings 
is ruled by the sceptre of one sovereign, presiding over 
his millions of subjects in his palace at Peking. 

I repeat, there is no parallel for it in the history of 
the human race ; and therefore it is, that this occasion 
seems to me to possess claims upon our sympathy, upon 
our respect, upon our confidence, beyond any other cor- 
responding event in our lives. Who among us here 
present will ever forget this scene 1 AVho can fail to 
remember that one of our own fellow-citizens comes 



50 RECEPTION OF THE 

back from that vast Empire, the representative of its 
power and of its millions of human beings, invested 
with the sacred, the sublime, the divine mission, to 
place them in harmonious correspondence, diplomatic, 
political and commercial, with the nations of Christen- 
dom 1 

No longer is China to be a sealed book to the world. 
No longer is her policy to be that of exclusion and non- 
intercourse. No longer is she to look with jealousy 
upon foreign powers. She has weighed and measured 
these foreign powers. She has statesmen enough of her 
own to know and to judge. Wildly is he deceived who 
imagines that these men are ignorant men, and unin- 
formed of the affairs of the world. I would that our 
own statesmen presented the same average of intelli- 
gence and accomplishment that I know is possessed by 
the statesmen of China. I say, they have weighed 
the statesmen of Christendom. They now appre- 
ciate their relation to one another, and their rela- 
tion to her ; and they feel that isolation has not only 
ceased to be for her interest, but that isolation does not 
become her. Is it for her, the inheritor of five thou- 
sand years of civilization, and with her immense popu- 
lation and resources, to shrink from contact with 
these relatively petty states of Christendom 1 By no 
means. She knows that she has but to advance, as 
she now does advance, to take her appropriate place 
in the great Kepublic of States — a place in which she 
is to exercise prodigious influence over the commercial 
as well as the intellectual condition of the human race. 
Ilcr advance is the more noble in that it is peaceful. 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 51 

What if the successor of Genghis Klian, from his throne 
of Cathay, should again send forth his millions of armed 
men like a deluge over Asia and Europe ? I shudder 
at the thought. 

We cannot over-estimate, we can scarcely compre- 
hend, all the heneficent effects of that treaty of which 
we have heard so interesting an account this evening 
from Mr. Burlingame. It is the initiation of measures, 
by a treaty between China and that one of the Christian 
powers in whose relative neutrality, so to speak, she 
may and does impose implicit confidence, that one 
of the Christian powers which she feels that she may 
and can make the agent, the intermediary, as it were, 
between herself and the other powers of the world, — 
it is, I say, the initiation of a series of measures which 
are to place her on a footing of amicable relationship to 
the other great Powers. We have sounded the key- 
note ; we have initiated — unchecked by jealousies, 
unaffected by any minor considerations, with the sole 
thought how a great and grand thing shall be done 
greatly and grandly — that series of negotiations which, 
I venture to say, must and will pass the circuit of the 
globe as resistless, as triumphant, as the march of the 
sun in heaven. 

I conclude, therefore, by expressing, in common 
with the gentlemen who have preceded me, the 
thought which I am sure is welling up in every 
bosom here present, and ^vliich stands half expressed 
upon every lip, — I say, I conclude by expressing my 
sense of pride, of gratification, of satisfied patriotism, 
in seeing that to the lot of one of our own fcllow-citi- 



52 RECEPTION OF THE 

zens has fallen that most holy and sublime mission of 
unsurpassed honor now, and of imperishable glory 
among all the nations, as well of Europe as of Amer- 
ica. And to us it should be the subject of special grat- 
ulation that this high duty has devolved not only upon 
one of our own fellow-citizens, but upon our own 
beloved country, and that in honoring him we do honor 
to the United States. 

The Mayor announced as the seventh regular toast : 
"The union of the? forthest East and the farthest West." 

He introduced Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson to respond. 

MR. Emerson's speech. 

Mr. Mayor : I suppose we are all of one opinion on 
this remarkable occasion of meeting the Embassy sent 
from the oldest Empire in the world to the youngest 
Kepublic. All share the surprise and pleasure when 
the venerable oriental dynasty, — hitherto a romantic 
legend to most of us, — suddenly steps into the fellow- 
ship of nations. This auspicious event, considered in 
connection with the late innovations in Japan, marks a 
new era, and is an irresistible result of the science which 
has given us the power of steam and the electric tele- 
graph. It is the more welcome for the surprise. We 
had said of China, as the old prophet said of Egypt, 
" Her strength is to sit still." Her people had such 
elemental conservatism, that by some wonderful force of 
race and national manners, the wars and revolutions 
that occur in her annals have proved but momentary 
swells or surges on the Pacific ocean of her history, 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 53 

leaving no trace. lUit in its immovability this race has 
claims. China is old not in time only, but in wisdom, 
which is gray hair to a nation, — or rather, truly seen, 
is eternal youth. As we know, China had the magnet 
centuries before Europe ; and block-printing or stereo- 
type, and lithography, and gunpowder, and vaccination, 
and canals ; had anticipated Linmcus's nomenclature of 
plants ; had codes, journals, clubs, hackney coaches, 
and, thirty centuries before New York, had the custom 
of New- Year's calls of comity and reconciliation. I 
need not mention its useful arts, — its pottery indispen- 
sable to the world, the luxury of silks, and its tea, the 
cordial of nations. But I must remember that she has 
respectable remains of astronomic science, and his- 
toric records of forgotten time, that have supplied 
important gaps in the ancient history of the western 
nations. Then she has philosophers who cannot be 
spared. Confucius has not yet gathered all his fame. 
When Socrates heard that the oracle declared that he 
was the wisest of men, he said, it must mean that other 
men held that they were wise, but that he knew that he 
knew nothing. Confucius had already affirmed this of 
himself: and what we call the Golden Rule of Jesus, 
Confucius had uttered in the same terms, five hundred 
years before. His morals, though addressed to a state 
of society utterly unlike ours, we read with profit to-day. 
His rare perception appears in his Golden Mean, his 
doctrine of Reciprocity, his unerring insight, — putting 
always the blame of our misfortunes on ourselves ; as 
when to the governor who complained of thieves, he 
said, " If you, sir, were not covetous, though you should 



54 RECEPTION OF THE 

reward them for it, they would not steal." His ideal of 
greatness predicts Marcus Antoninus. At the same 
time, he abstained from paradox, and met the ingrained 
prudence of his nation by saying always, " Bend one 
cubit to straighten eight." 

China interests us at this moment in a point of poli- 
tics. I am sure that gentlemen around me bear in 
mind the bill which Hon. Mr. Jenckes> of Rhode Island, 
has twice attempted to carry through Congress, requir- 
ing that candidates for public offices shall first pass 
examination on their literary qualifications for the same. 
Well, China has preceded us, as well as England and 
France, in this essential correction of a reckless usage ; 
and the like high esteem of education appears in China 
in social life, to whose distinctions it is made an indis- 
pensable passport. 

It is gratifying to know that the advantages of the 
new intercourse between the two countries are daily 
manifest on the Pacific coast. The immigrants from 
Asia come in crowds. Their power of continuous labor, 
their versatility in adapting themselves to new condi- 
tions, their stoical economy, are unlooked-for virtues. 
They send back to their friends, in China, money, new 
products of art, new tools, machinery, new foods, etc., 
and are thus establishing a commerce without limit. I 
cannot help adding, after what I have heard to-night, 
that I have read in the journals a statement from an 
English source, that Sir Frederic Bruce attributed to 
Mr. Burlingame the merit of the happy reform in the 
relations of foreign governments to China. I am quite 
sure that I heard from Mr. Burlingame in New York, 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 55 

in his last visit to America, that the whole merit of it 
belonged to Sir Frederic Bruce. It appears that the 
ambassadors were emulous in their magnanimity. It is 
certainly the best guaranty for the interests of China 
and of humanity. 

•The IMayor then introduced the Honorable Nathaniel P. 
Banks, as Cliairnian of the Committee on Foreign Relations, of 
the House of Representatives. 

SPEECH OF HON. N. 1'. BANKS. 

Mr. Mayor : I am sure it is not my faidt that 1 am 
led to trespass upon the attention of gentlemen at this 
late hour of the evening. I have learned a little wisdom 
from a short acquaintance with our Chinese friends. I 
have learned that there is medicine for sickness, but not 
for fate ; and that when a man comes to a banquet in 
Boston he ought to be ready for the destiny that awaits 
him. 

It gives me, sir, great pleasure to participate in this 
most wise and just celebration of the passage of the 
treaty to which reference has been made, and the advent 
of the distinguished Embassy from China. After what 
has been said by other gentlemen, I can do little more 
than return to you, Mr. Mayor, and your associates, my 
thanks for the honor conferred upon me by your invita- 
tion, and to the gentlemen present for the kind recep- 
tion they have given to the mention of my name by you. 

I am happy to confirm what has been said by so many 
iicntlemen in rejjard to the o;reat advantages which the 



56 RECEPTION OF THE 

connection consummated by this treaty is likely to bring 
to the United States of America. But I go a little 
further than any yet have gone ; and I claim for the 
distinguished head of this Embassy, whom we have 
known so long and so well, more of the gratitude that 
is due for the successful initiation and completion of 
this great movement than has yet been accorded to him. 
It is my belief, sir, — and I speak from long and inti- 
mate personal knowledge of him — that it is not only to 
his sagacity and his experience, but especially by the 
profound kindness of heart and generosity of nature, 
that he has won the confidence of the Chinese nation ; 
and that out of this kindness of heart and this generosity 
of nature he returns to us with the high commission 
which he bears, and shows to us in the future the great 
advantages which the two nations are to win from the 
consummation of the closer connection which has been 
initiated. 

There are one or two points of resemblance between 
the Chinese nation and the people of the United States 
which ought not to pass without observation on such an 
occasion as this. The distinguished gentleman on my 
right (Mr. Emerson), has alluded, as other gentlemen 
have done, to the fact, that one is the oldest nation of 
history and the other the newest republic of the world. 
But there are other important resemblances. The 
Chinese nation is a government without force. The 
United States is a government with no power except 
the consent of the people who are governed, All other 
nations differ in this respect. Every government, in 
every age and in every clime, has sustained, and now 



CHINESE EMBASSY, 57 

sustains, its authority by physical force, while tlie gov- 
ernments of China and of the United States alone 
trust for their authority to the recognition and the con- 
sent of the people whom they govern. 

Much has been said of the civilization which that 
great and ancient nation has attained, and much more 
might be said, resting upon human authority, to confirm 
the statement ; but, in my judgment, there is one proof, 
greater, stronger and clearer than any that has yet been 
offered, and it exists in this fact — that a nation of four 
hundred millions, which has maintained itself for five 
thousand years, and, as has been already said, is likely 
to perpetuate its power to the end of time, and which 
governs its people without other force than their con- 
sent, must have greater qualities than any other nation 
that has yet existed. There is a lesson for Americans 
and for Europeans, for civilized nations or for barba- 
rians. In any government that has this moral power to 
control these hundreds of millions of citizens for these 
thousands of years, there must be a degree of wisdom 
on the part of the people, and a capacity on the part of 
the rulers, for which human history elsewhere and at 
other times has made no note or record ; and I welcome 
the association and connection which they offer us as an 
opportunity of attaining information in the science of 
government, which we have not yet been able to derive 
from any other family or any other example among the 
nations of the earth. 

There is a single other resemblance to which I will 
call your attention, and then relieve you from further 
trespass upon your time. The Chinese nation asks the 



58 RECEPTION OF THE 

maintenance of the integrity of its empire. The Chi- 
nese nation asserts by its Ambassadors, if not by its 
philosophy, the great doctrine of non-intervention, 
upon the assertion of which the Government of the 
United States was founded. They come now, as has 
been said, not merely to ask admission upon the roll of 
civilized States, but to assert a doctrine grander than 
any that has yet been proclaimed by men or by nations; 
a higher than any of American civilization, or than Eu- 
ropean civilization has ever been able to announce. We 
claim great merit to ourselves, Mr. Mayor and gentle- 
men, because, in the establishment of our theories of 
government, wt recognized the doctrine of the frater- 
nity and equality of man. 

The liberties of all men is the great lesson that we 
have taught the world, and in our day and our time, it 
is, perhaps, as much as might have been expected of us. 
We are only two hundred years old. That is all that 
we have learned, and that is all that we have taught the 
nations of the earth. But there is a grander doctrine 
than this, never yet announced in authoritative form to 
the nations of the earth, and never yet read upon the 
pages of human history. The State is the creation ' of 
"God. The individual man is necessary to a state of po- 
litical society. The creation of the State is necessary to 
the progress of man and the civilization of the human 
race. The State, therefore, is the grander creation of 
the two, and though man be the Immediate creation of 
Divine Providence, the State is not less the creation of 
that power, and its eminence and its power are not less 
necessary to work out the destiny and purposes of Prov- 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 59 

idence. The State, sir, hitherto, lias been regarded as 
the work of man. Governments have claimed the right 
to make and to destroy, and the strongest in the course 
of human history, has been ready and willing, and 
claimed the right, to destroy those who Ayere not less 
able to defend themselves. 

* But here come the representatives of this ancient na- 
tion, that we have been accustomed to class among bar- 
barian States, with the great doctrine, not merely of the 
brotherhood of man, but the higher and nobler result 
of civilization, which is the fraternity of nations ; and 
if in their mission, whether it springs from necessity or 
from wisdom, it shall be their destiny to accomi)lisli the 
recognition of this principle of the fraternity of nations, 
as the American people have consummated the doctrine 
of the fraternity of men, there is little more left for man 
to do in the way of perfecting the human race in mat- 
ters of government, or of extending the beneficient ad- 
vantages of- human civihzation. That they will do this, 
sir, I can have no doubt whatever. Although in differ- 
ent parts of the world their theories may be resisted, and 
the States of Europe may insist, now and hereafter, as 
heretofore, upon the right of intervention, we must re- 
member that they resisted also our doctrine which has 
been consummated, of the equality and fraternity of man ; 
and so much clearer and stronger is the recognition of 
the grander doctrine of the fraternity of nations, that 
the reason and justice of the philosophy alone will 
carry it onward, as has been said by the distinguished 
Senator who has preceded me, as triumphant as the 
march of the sun in heaven. 



60 RECEPTION OF THE 

I read this morning, in one of the city journals, the 
letter of a Massachusetts man from the southern part of 
Europe, where, in speaking of many important matters 
that had fallen under his observation, lie alludes to one 
which cannot be mentioned without touching the heart 
of an American, especially of a Massachasetts man, 
particularly the heart of a citizen of Boston — that the 
commercial flag of the United States had been swept 
from the seas of the world. Here, sir, where we re- 
member that, within our own times, within the time of 
the youngest among us, the Grays, the Lymans, the 
Sturgis's, and many others of the merchant princes of 
Boston, who were the fathers and founders of American 
commerce — who gave this city its prestige, its prosper- 
ity, its power, its wealth ; where we saw that infant com- 
merce, founded by the fathers of our own neighborhood, 
grow to such a power, equalling, if not surpassing, that 
of the most successful nations of the earth — we can but 
grieve, ay, sir, deeply grieve, that any one travelling 
over any portion of the earth should be compelled to 
say that the commercial flag of the United States had 
been swept from the seas and was to be seen no more. 
But, sir, I see in the mission of my friend, Mr. Burlin- 
game, and his associate ministers, the recovery of that 
commercial prestige and power which we have lost. I 
need not allude to the sad events which have led to 
this change in the commercial power of the United 
States. They are too well known, too deeply engraved 
upon the hearts of all present, to need any reference 
whatever. It was upon the Atlantic, sir, that we had 
achieved our power, and where our commerce had sway, 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 61 

and when the maritime nations of the okl workl, either 
out of distrust of our own purposes, or jealous of our 
power, seized a fitting opportunity for them, and an 
unfortunate one for us, to s\\eep the American flag from 
the seas, it seemed as if it were impossible for us ever 
to recover our power. I don't know that it is to be 
expected, or that we shall ever regain our power there. 
But the Atlantic Ocean is only a tenth part of the 
surface of the globe, land and water. On the other 
side of our continent, which we reach in a few days by 
our railroads, we stand in view of the Pacific Ocean, 
that covers one-third of the surface of the globe, land 
and water ; that is controlled on the west by six or seven 
or eight hundred millions of people, with a sufhcient 
number on this side, I think, to keep up our end of the 
matter in our little portion ; and with the friendly na- 
tions of Russia, China, Japan, and ultimately, perhaps, 
of the Indies, we shall reinstate the commercial flag: of 
the United States and raise our power, prestige and 
prosperity in that line of human enterprise to an ele- 
vation which the mind of man has never yet been able 
to conceive. We may, sir, return the compliment which 
has been paid to us by the European nations. And when 
our fleets are fixed, and our flag planted upon the Pa- 
cific Ocean, sharing in the industry and the commerce 
of these hundreds of millions of people, we may return 
the compliment paid to us by our European friends, and, 
as Grant did in Virginia, as Sherman did at Atlanta, 
flank the enemy, and take possession of the field. And 
this, sir, we do with the aid of this Embassy and that of 
the great, intelligent and just people that it represents. 



62 RECEPTION OF THE 

I remember, sir, reading in that most delicate, beau- 
tiful, and too short biography of Mr. Sheil, the Irish 
barrister, an account of his tutor, of the Jesuit profes- 
sion, who, by the goodness of his nature, and the wis- 
dom of his intellect, had won the affections of this youth- 
ful student in the monasteries of Ireland. He says, (and 
there is significance in the remark he makes,) that his 
tutor was taken away from him without an instant's pre- 
paration or notice. This Jesuit was ordered to Siberia, 
with instructions to work his way into China by any 
means in his power, for the purpose of giving to the 
governments he represented the benefit of his discover- 
ies in that far-distant and little known land. This 
shows what eff"ort, what care, what pains have been 
taken by the European nations to make themselves ac- 
quainted with the Chinese people. We, sir, have been 
careless of thes? things ; and that Providence which has 
taken care of us in so many great trials has opened the 
way to us for a greater advantage than the European 
nations have ever yet acquired. These men, the Chi- 
nese — the representatives of four hundred millions of 
people — come to us and off"er to us their interest, their in- 
dustry and the profits of their commerce. They ask 
nothing from us but the kindness and friendship which 
we are ready to show to every nation. And I trust, sir, 
that the American people and the American Govern- 
ment will not be unwilling to do whatever is necessary ^ 
to sustain the proffer of friendship which they have 
made ; that we shall be willing to say to the Chinese, 
that, so far as moral influence goes, the integrity of their 
nation shall be maintained, as we say to ourselves that 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 63 

the integrity of our nation shall he maintained. Whether 
it he against domestic or foreign foes, we will maintain 
our power till this continent shall he all American and 
our flag known, as heretofore, upon every sea. 

Mr. Mayor and fellow-citizens, not to trespass upon 
your attention any farther, I will close with a sentiment, 
Avhich I could wish to have embodied in my speech, a 
sentiment that reflects my own feelings, I trust may also 
reflect your own judgment. 

The Ministers and Associate Officers of the Chinese 
Emhassy of 1868. The representatives of the political 
society of widely different periods of history, and politi- 
cal powers of opposite parts of the globe ; the agents of 
a civilization whose mission it is to prevent the isola- 
tion and intervention of States, and establish the frater- 
nity of nations. May God give them health, strength 
and wisdom, and success commensurate with the mag- 
nitude and justice of the great cause they represent ! 



The eighth regular toast, — 

"The Commercial Relations between China and the United States," 

was responded to by Charles G. Nazro, Esq., President of tl\c 
Boston Board of Trade. 

SPEECH OF CHARLES G. NAZRO, ESQUIRE. 

Mr. Mayor: The topic upon which you have called 
me to speak, is one which not only commends itself to 
every merchant and every business man, but also finds a 
response in the heart of every citizen of our land. We 
have arrived, sir, at a new epoch in the affairs of the 



64 RECEPTION OF THE 

world. Old prejudices are being overcome, and en- 
lightened minds are beginning to have control, where 
heretofore, darkness has prevailed. The discoveries, 
through modern science, of the forces of nature, have 
rendered achievements practicable at the present day, 
which, in times past, have been considered utterly im- 
possible. The power of steam and of electricity ; the 
improvement in machinery, and the increased facilities 
and speed of transportation and of locomotion, have 
brought the distant countries of the Avorld in close prox- 
imity ; and nations which before were separated by an 
impassable wall of partition, are now brought together 
as friends and neighbors. And this is only the first act 
in the great drama, and we, who are upon the stage at 
the present time, are only a small portion of the actors 
who are to take a part in it. 

Sir, there is more in this than appears upon the sur- 
face ; there is a depth of meaning which it is well for 
us to ponder and understand. Who, sir, is competent 
to foretell the future ? Who has imagination sufficiently 
vivid to depict the effect of these new movements upon 
the human race even for the next fifty years ] Already 
do we see the great Empire of China, abounding as she 
does in wealth, and containing one-third of the popula- 
tion of the globe, emerging from that state of isolation 
in which she has been kept, and reciprocating with us, 
and the other nations of the western world, overtures of 
kind and friendly relations ; — and to-night we have as 
guests her honored representatives ; and soon will all 
the nations of the earth be bound in the indissoluble 
ties of friendship. Christian sympathy and love. 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 65 

What then, sir, are the lessons we are to draw from 
these events ? First, and naturally as a commercial 
nation, we see enlargement of our commerce ; more ex- 
tended commercial relations with those distant empu-es ; 
greater profit in trade and large pecuniary gain. And 
I think, sir, at the present moment we can hardly esti- 
mate the great importance of this aspect of the subject. 
But while all the world will be benefited, it appears to 
me that our own country will derive peculiar advan- 
tage. If we are true to ourselves, we shall take our 
place in the front rank of nations. From our geograph- 
ical position, our Continent forms, as it were, a direct 
highway between the nations of the east and those of 
the west. We have youth, energy, natural advantages, 
a virgin soil, mineral wealth, inland seas and rivers for 
transportation, and every thing that goes to make up a 
great country. But we 7niist be true to ourselves. The 
flag which we so much venerate and beneath whose folds 
we feel so entirely secure from the assaults of foes from 
abroad or traitors at home, must float without a spot or 
blemish. Its azAire field must be as pure as the ethereal 
heavens, of which it is the emblem ; its stars must be 
as bright as the celestial luminaries which they repre- 
sent, and not a foul spot be allowed upon our escutcheon. 
If our government in time of peril pledges its word in 
good faith for the payment of money, that pledge must 
be redeemed when the danger is passed — not in the 
letter only, but in the spirit. Better, sir, pay the na- 
tional debt twice over, than by any mean subterfuge seek 
to filch a single dollar from any one who has trusted to 
the national honor ; nor let us sanction in our govern- 

9 



66 RECEPTION OF THE 

ment acts, which, if performed by individuals, would 
expose them to the contempt of all honorable men. 

If, then, we thus perform our duty to ourselves and 
to the world, we may expect great advantages from 
these commercial alliances. But. Mr. Mayor, important 
as is this view of the subject — and we can hardly over- 
estimate it — there is a higher and nobler plane from 
which to view it. We learn by it, that an unseen hand 
is moulding and guiding our destiny — and that we are 
merely instruments in working out the great problem in 
the divine government. We see that the nations of the 
earth, drawn and directed by that Providence, ^are 
seeking a closer and more friendly alliance with each 
other, and that soon the sword wall cease to be the 
arbiter through which the national questions will be 
determined, but that mutual forbearance and Christian 
courtesy will take its place ; we see in it civilization 
with all its ennobling and elevating influences spreading 
further and wider ; and we see that, following in the 
track of our commerce, the Christian religion will flow in 
copious streams ; and that while we send our ships to 
those shores laden with the rich products of our land, 
they will also be freighted with the glorious gospel of 
our blessed Redeemer ; and notwithstanding unchristian 
and wicked acts may have been done to the people of 
those countries (although, so far as my knowledge 
extends, our own country has not been guilty in this 
particular), we may thus atone for the wrong, and be 
instrumental in guiding them into the way of eternal 
life. 

Then, Mr. Mayor, if these views be correct, and if 



CH1^'ESE EMU ASSY. 67 

these results are to follow the present movement, should 
we not thank God for it, not only as merchants, but as 
philanthropists and Christians, and do all in our power 
to promote it? I think, it is a matter of no small 
significance that the present representative of the great 
Empire of China is not a foreigner, who does not 
understand our institutions, but one of our own esteemed 
fellow-citizens ; and that while we receive him most 
cordially in his official capacity, we also receive him as 
a friend and neiglibor, and bid him a warm welcome to 
his home ; and although the gentlemen associated with 
him in the Embassy cannot be expected so fully to 
appreciate us as one of our OAvn citizens, yet their 
intelligence will compensate the want of experience ; 
and we trust, that when they return to their home, they 
will bear with them kind remembrances of us, and we 
wish them God speed in their important mission. 

Mr. Mayor, permit me, in closing, to offer as a 
sentiment : 

" The friendli) intercourse of nations : The aid to in- 
dustry, the promoter of civilization, and the handmaid 
of religion." 

The Mayor then introduced Mr. Edwin P. Whipple to 
respond to tlie ninth regular toast, — ' 

"The Press." 

MR. Whipple's speech. 

One cannot attempt, Mr. Mayor, to respond here for 
the press, without being reminded that the press and 



68 RECEPTION OF THE 

the Chinese Embassy have been on smgularly good 
terms from the start. To record the progress, applaud 
the object, extend the influence, and cordially eulogize 
the members of that Embassy, have been for months no 
inconsiderable part of the business of all newspapers ; 
and if China anticipated us, by some five hundred 
years, in the invention of printing, our Chinese guests 
will still admit that, in the minute account we have 
given both of what they have, and of what they 
have not, said and done, since they arrived in the coun- 
try, we have carried the invention to a perfection of 
which they never dreamed, — having not only invented 
printing, but invented a great deal of what we print. 

But, apart from the rich material they have furnished 
the press in the way of news, there is something 
strangely alluring and inspiring to the editorial imagi- 
nation in the comprehensive purpose which has prompt- 
ed their mission to the civilized nations of the West. 
That purpose is doubly peaceful, for it includes a two- 
fold commerce of material products and of immaterial 
ideas. Probably the vastest conception which ever en- 
tered into the mind of a conqueror was that which was 
profoundly meditated, and, in its initial steps, practi- 
cally carried out, by Alexander the Great. He was 
engaged in a clearly-defined project of assimilating the 
populations of Europe and Asia, when, at the early age 
of thirty-three, he was killed — I tremble to state it here 
— by a too eager indulgence in an altogether too muni- 
ficent public dinner ! Alexander's weapon was force, 
but it was at least the force of genius, and it was ex- 
erted in the service of a magnificent idea. His sue- 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 69 

ccssors in modern times have but too often Jivailed 
themselves of force divested of all ideas, except tlie 
idea of bullying or outwitting the Asiatics in a trade. 

As to China, this conduct roused an insurrection of 
Chinese conceit against European conceit. The Chi- 
nese were guilty of the offence of calling the represent- 
atives of the proudest and most' supercilious of all civil- 
izations, " outside barbarians " ; illustrating in this that 
too common conservative weakness of human nature, 
of holding fixedly to an opinion long after the facts 
which justified it have changed or passed away. It 
certainly cannot be questioned that at a period which, 
when compared with the long date of Chinese annals, 
may be called recent, we were outside barbarians as con- 
trasted with that highly civilized and ingenious people. 
At the time when our European ancestors were squalid, 
swinish, w^olfish savages, digging with their hands into 
the earth for roots to allay the pangs of hunger, with- 
out arts, letters, or written speech, China rejoiced in an 
old, refined, complicated civilization ; was rich, popu- 
lous, enlightened, cultivated, humane ; was fertile in 
savans, poets, moralists, metaphysicians, saints ; had in- 
vented printing, gunpowder, the mariner's compass, the 
sage's rule of life ; had, in one of her three State re- 
ligions — that of Confucius — presented a code of morals 
which, being as immortal as the human conscience, can 
never become obsolete ; and had, in another of her 
State religions — that of Buddha — solemnly professed her 
allegiance to that doctrine of the equality of men, 
which Buddha taught twenty-four hundred years before 
our Jefi"erson was born, and had at the same time vig- 



70 RECEPTION OF THE 

oroiisly grappled with that problem of existence which 
our Emerson finds as insolvable now as it was then. 

Well, sir, after all this had relatively changed, after 
the Western nations had made their marvellous ad- 
vances in civilization, they were too apt to exhibit to 
China only their barbaric side — that is, their ravenous 
cupidity backed by their insolent strength. We judge 
for example, of England by the poetry of Shakespeare, 
the science of Newton, the ethics of Butler, the religion 
of Taylor, the jjhilanthropy of Wilberforce ; but what 
poetry, science, ethics, religion or philanthropy was she 
accustomed to show in her intercourse with China ? 
Did not John Bull, in his rough methods with the Ce- 
lestial Empire, sometimes literally act " like a bull in a 
China shop V You remember, sir, that "intelligent 
contraband " who, when asked his opinion of an 
offending white brother, delicately hinted his distrust 
by replying : " Sar, if I was a chicken, and that man 
was about, I should take care to roost high." Well, all 
that we can say of China is, that for a long time she 
" roosted high " — withdrew suspiciously into her own 
civilization to escape the rough contact with the harsh- 
er side of ours. 

But, by a sudden inspiration of almost miraculous 
confidence, springing from a faith in the nobler qualities 
of our Caucasian civilization, she has changed her pol- 
icy. She has learned that in the language, and on the 
lips, and in the hearts of most members of the English 
race, there is such a word as equity, and at the magic 
of that word she has eagerly emerged from her isolation. 
And, sir, what we see here to-day reminds me that, some 



CHINESE EMBASSY. 71 

thirty years ago, Uostou confined one of lier citizens in 
a lunatic asylum, for the offence of being possessed by a 
too intensified Boston " notion." lie had discovered a 
new and expeditious way of getting to China. " All 
agree," he said, " that the earth revolves daily on its own 
axis. If you desire," he therefore contended, "to go to 
China, all you have to do is to go up in a balloon, wait 
till China comes round, then let off the gas, and drop 
softly down." Xow I will put it to you, Mr. Mayor, if 
you are not bound to release that philosopher from con- 
finement, for has not his conception been realized ? — 
has not China, to-day, unmistakably come round to us ? 
And now, sir, a word as to the distinguished gen- 
tleman at the head of the Embassy — a gentleman spe- 
cially dear to the press. Judging from the eagerness 
with which the position is sought, I am led to believe 
that the loftiest compliment which can be paid to a hu- 
man being is, that he has once represented Boston in 
the national House of llepresentatives. After such a 
distinction as that, all other distinctions, however great, 
must still show a sensible decline from political grace. 
But I trust that you will all admit, that next to the hon- 
or of representing Boston in the House of Representa- 
tives comes the honor of representing the vast Empire 
of China in " The Parliament of man, the Federation of 
the World." Having enjoyed both distinctions, Mr. 
Burlingame may be better qualified than we arc to dis- 
criminate between the exultant feelings which each 
is caculated to excite in the human breast. But we 
must remember that the po[)ulation, all brought up on a 
system of universal education, of the empire he repre- 



72 RECEPTION OF THE 

sents, is greater than the combined population of all the 
nations to which he is accredited. Most Bostonians have, 
or think they have, a " mission " ; but certainly no other 
Bostonian ever had such a " mission " as he ; for it extends 
all round the planet ; makes him the most universal Am- 
bassador and Minister Plenipotentiary the world ever 
saw; is, in fact, a " mission" from everybody to every- 
body, and one by which it is proposed that everybody 
shall be benefited. To doubt its success would be to 
doubt the moral soundness of Christian civilization. It 
implies that Christian doctrines will find no opponents 
provided that Christian nations set a decent example of 
Christianity. Its virtue heralds the peaceful triumph of 
reason over prejudice, of justice over force, of humanity 
over the hatreds of class and race, of the good of all 
over the selfish blindness of each, of the " fraternity 
of the great Commonwealth of Nations over the insolent 
" liberty " of any one of them to despise, oppress, and 
rob the rest. 

Letters were received from a number of distinguished gentle- 
men whose engagements prevented their attendance at the ban- 
quet. Among others, from the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, 
late Minister to the Court of St. James ; the Hon. J. Lothrop 
Motley, late Minister to the Court of Vienna; Prof. Louis 
Agassiz, the Hon. Hugh McCuUoch, the Hon. Wm. M. Evarts, 
Bishop Eastburn, Bishop Williams, the Hon. Richard H. Dana, 
Jr., the Hon. Henry Wilson, and the Hon. Wm. Clafliu. 



OTHER ENTERTAINMENTS, 



OTHER ENTERTAINMENTS. 



On Saturday, the twenty-second of August, the City Council 
entertained the Emljassy with an excursion in Boston Harbor, 
in the United States Revenue Cutter *' McCulloch." At Fort 
Warren the guests were received with a sakite, and were con- 
ducted through the Fortress by Major A. A. Gibson, 3d U. S. 
Artillery, commanding the post. The company afterwards vis- 
ited Deer Island, and inspected the City Institutions. After 
partaking of a collation at that place they returned to the city. 

On Monday following, Mr. Burlingame and his associates 
were formally received and entertained by the Municipal au- 
thorities of Cambridge. 

On Tuesday, the Embassy visited Lawrence, with the Boston 
Committee of Arrangements, for the purpose of inspectiug tlic 
great manufacturing establishments in that city. A special train 
was furnished by the President of the Boston cfe Maine Rail- 
road Corporation, which started at ten o'clock, A. M. The 
guests were shown through the Washington Woollen Mills and 
the Pacific Cotton Mills. After partaking of a collation at tlie 
Pacific Mills they returned to Boston. 

On Wednesday, the Embassy were formally received 1)y His 
Excellency the Governor, at the State House. The Indepen- 
dent Corps of Cadets, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel 
John Jeflries, Jr., were drawn up in front of the building, anil 
saluted the distinguished visitors as they entered. 

The Sergcant-at-Aruis escorted them to the Council Clumibur, 



76 RECEPTION OF THE 

where tlie Governor welcomed the Embassy in the following 
words : 

Your Excellencies : I welcome you to Massachusetts. 
The objects of the mission which brings you hither find 
a ready response in this Commonwealth, whose com- 
mercial relations with the country you represent have 
been constant and friendly. Gushing, Parker and Bur- 
lingame went from our schools to their high and peace- 
ful work in China. 

I am glad that, coming from one of the ancient em- 
pires of the East, you are tarrying among us long 
enough to observe something of the spirit and mode of 
the civilization of the West. The traditions and cus- 
toms of the old world can take no harm from contact 
with the active and aggressive life of the new. Your 
nationality and ours ought to become assimilated in 
fraternal feeling for the part they may bear in the future 
of history. 

Your chief, Mr. Burlingame, is no stranger in this 
capital where his public life and distinction began. I 
offer to him a special and personal greeting among the 
friends of former days, of which the memory is still 
fresh and pleasant to us all. 

Mr. Burlingame responded as follows : 

Your Excellencif : Permit me to thank you for this 
warm welcome, to thank you for the beautiful language 
in which it is expressed, to thank you for the high 
thoughts in which it is c(mveyed. This good- will wo 
take to be the decision of the highest civilization in the 



CHINESE EMBASSY. I / 

world in behalf of the mission on which we are here. 
Massachusetts was the first to send out messengers of 
peace, and to establish relations with China. May the 
spirit in which she first established those relations con- 
tinue to the end ! And I invoke the aid of all here to unite 
in the effort we are making to realize the unification of 
all the people. Thanking you, feeling deeply touched 
by your personal allusions, I will bring my remarks to 
a close, trusting that you may have all prosperity, and 
that the Commonwealth over which you preside may be 
prosperous also. 

Mr. Burlingame tlicii advanced, and taking the Governor'^ 
hand, said : 

I now grasp your hand in friendship, and I trust that 
to you and to the people who are here, this grasp of 
friendship will be continued to all ages. 

The Embassy remained in Boston until the 2d of September, 
and were entertained in an informal way by the Couimittee of 
Arrangements, and by private individuals. Tiiey visited the 
City Hall, tlie histitute of Technology, the Public Library, tlic 
City Hospital, Bunker Hill MoDumcnt and the Waltham Watch 
Factory. Thqy were also entertained by the Municipality of 
Chelsea. 

On Wednesday mornintr, at half past eight o'clock, they loft 
Boston for New York, in a special car attached to the regular 
train on tlie Boston and AUnmv Kiiiiroad. 



